What I started to say was "Gotta Get Back" Roatan Island, Honduras. It was without a doubt the most beautiful of all the ports we stopped in. As you read this, I'll talk about the pictures from the blog below, but again, the pi ctures don't show the real beauty of this place.
1. Took a picture from the van after we left the dolphin experience. From quite a few spots you could see the most gorgeous overlooks. I know my family would love to just drive around and view the beauty of this island, which by the way is about 32 miles long and about 5 miles wide.
2. The white sand beach area where we had a traditional lunch of rice, beans, bar-b-que chicken, hamburgers, coleslaw, etc. It was a private beach with gated fence and I guess was primarily used for tourists. We enjoyed a romp in the ocean, our own lounge chair and drinks brought to us by waiters. All very relaxing and just what you want on vacation.
3. Here's Coley perusing the menu and we sit down for some refreshments before we go for our dolphin adventure. It turned out that Bev didn't want to do this excursion, which was the only one Coley and I actually signed up for. Bev took the chair lift to another white sand beach just beyond where our boat docked in Roatan.
4. As we walked down the dock to the boardwalk, I took a picture of this sunken ship. Roatan, in the 1700's to 1800's was a home to pirates. By 1860, Britain had given up its claim and it became self-governing. In 1723 a man was shipwrecked and managed to survive for 16 months until he was picked up by a passing ship. Edward Leslie in 1988 wrote a book about it in his book called "Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls". Sounds like a Tom Hanks movie to me.
5. Here's one of the first pictures I took of Coley as we entered the area of the boardwalk where the shops are. As you can see by the sign we landed at Mahogany Bay.
6. This is Ron and Alise, I believe from Texas, on their first cruise ever. Every morning I was the first to rise and I would make my way from the 9th floor down to the 7th floor to have coffee on the aft deck. Ron and Alise would either be there before me or right after me, so each morning we shared coffee together. Notice how new and beautiful the area around the boardwalk is, so unlike every other port we stopped in that looked weather beaten, more rustic, even worn out. This place appeared to be a recent development.
7. We are at the dolphin adventure and our group of about 8 people are standing just back from our dolphin, a 2.5 year old female, named Bailey and her handler (can't remember her name, guess she was not as important as our dolphin). As a note to those of you who saw the incredibly vicious documentary film made by the handler of Flipper about the killing of dolphins in Japan, I was interested in the captivity of these dolphins and whether or not they had access the the ocean. I'm happy to report they have 24 dolphins they work with, half of which were born at the compound. They are all allowed out of the enclosed area and are trained to come back. If you look closely at the picture you can see Coley's fingers just to the right of the picture. We all stood in a straight line and Bailey swam right along in front of us so that we could stroke her. AWESOME!!!!
8. Here's Bailey showing off her teeth. Bailey had the cutest personality. On more than one occasion she swam over to the next group where her bff was to show her the big fish she had just earned. Her trainer told us that 2.5 year olds are the teenagers of the group.
9. Coley and I getting a hug from Bailey. We literally were holding her in our arms to she could raise her head and tail up. Thankfully the salt water made it really easy for us to lift her.
10. The last two pictures are me and Coley getting our kiss from Bailey. Coley and I got to be the first group to have hugs and kisses, so it felt really special.
This is an island we highly recommend. Most of the Americans live in what is called the West End, which we did not really get to see. But the locals were very friendly, always smiling and ready to help. Of course, we were there as tourists, but it was fantastic!!!!!
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